The distribution of the hysteresis loss (DWh) for films with a high Hc/Hk ratio shows a monotonically decreasing behaviour with applied field (Ha) while medium and low Hc/Hk exhibit a double peak characteristic. The high field peak agrees with Hcw as determined from domain observations. By changing the direction of Ha from perpendicular to an in-plane direction, the DWh to the in-plane orientation of M is shown.